


Fanfic Virginity: Lost

by spae



Series: Dangerous Hobby [5]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Characters Reading Fanfiction, M/M, Tim learns a thing or two, Tim's author woes, Tim's eyes are opened, why yes I will test your comprehension with inference questions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 08:56:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15482226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spae/pseuds/spae
Summary: Tim is a very good investigator monkey. Maybe.





	Fanfic Virginity: Lost

Tim watched the elevator doors close on the orange main floor of the NCIS building and breathed a sigh of relief as he headed down toward the parking garage.

Gibbs had unfortunately noticed his clock-watching and given him a seemingly never-ending cascade of busywork to do all afternoon, without even having the decency to depart his desk and give McGee some space to vent his ire behind his boss’s back. _Obviously_ he wasn’t going to do it to his face _Tony-style_ – he wasn’t suicidal - but it had made for a very long afternoon.

He slipped a hand into his pocket, and a secret smile flickered as he fingered the USB stick he’d hidden there earlier. _Tonight_ , he promised himself, he was going to do some detective work.

~

He got home around six-thirty, having stopped and gotten takeout on the way home. The decadent smell of frankly far-too-much Chinese food for one person had filled the car and he was ravenous by the time he set it down in the kitchen. Within a few minutes, he’d changed into his scruffs and settled on his most comfortable couch with his laptop and a refillable bowl of deliciousness.

“Okay, Abby,” he smirked, plugging the USB in. “Let’s see what you’re not telling me.”

~

“This is _Random_ ,” Tim remarked to himself, scrolling through Abby’s internet history in lieu of filtering and regretting it. “Just goes to show, you shouldn’t label people. Ah, _here_ we go.”

The _Deep Six_ website featured prominently for 43 entries, and Tim took a deep breath and clicked on the one Abby had visited first. Evidently that was the search engine’s response to “pirate Tibbs” and he was a little stunned to see 54 stories in the results.

The one Abby had chosen was by someone who’d written a whole damn series of stories about Captain One-Shot Gibbs called _Swashbuckling Clichés_. Tim breathed out deeply, clenched his thighs, took a mouthful of satay chicken and clicked on the first story in the series: _Who’s a pretty boy, then?_

He tried not to choke as he read the pairing and warnings. Was he _really_ going to do this? Because this was _weird shit_ : stealing his characters and setting them in the Age of Sail. And okay, he can see it – Gibbs was a fucking marine, after all – but Gibbs/Tony? _I mean,_ _Tibbs/Tommy_ , Tim berated himself.

Tim swallowed his chicken and stabbed a chewy piece of roast pork. _Man up, McGee,_ he told himself. _Abby’s read it._ And with a stout heart he dived in.

Fifteen-thousand or so words later, Tim was engrossed; his face was flaming, his Chinese forgotten and he had to keep relaxing his grip on the laptop. Tibbs, of course, was just _powerful_ in this story. In his mind’s eye, he could see Gibbs mastering the oceans, wind and waves a’tempest surrendering to his iron will and cold unforgiving glare. It wasn’t surprising that Tony’s sheltered youth had yielded as soon as he had; it was shocking the entire seafaring world hadn’t just rolled over and let Gibbs--   _shit_. _Tibbs_. Fuck.

The uncomfortable truth struck him forcefully. He wasn’t thinking of his grumpy alcoholic lead investigator _character_ when he read this. It was all Gibbs; _Gibbs_ , with his habit of silently appearing at the worst moment, his devastating _Look_ when he knew you weren’t being truthful, his fear-and-loyalty-inspiring presence making you leap into action. This author had brought Gibbs to life, even in this alternate reality freakshow where Gibbs was a bad guy. Tim found himself rooting for the pirate king to evade capture, and cheering for every clever trick he pulled. Tibbs, by this point in the story, had pretty much ridden roughshod over the young Tommy’s sensibilities, earning the story’s non-con rating, until Tommy had capitulated, accepting his fate with freakishly accurate black humour.

Tim swallowed. Yeah. He did get it now. Tibbs was a cheap knock-off of Gibbs. And TSM4, whoever they were, without even knowing the real Gibbs, had captured his essence.

He got up and grabbed a beer from the fridge, and then another, swallowing half the first in one go. He looked out of the window at the city, taking another swig. He hadn’t meant to write his book as a way to shame his co-workers, or, God-forbid, his boss; he’d just wanted to tell a story from a probationer’s point of view – and somehow it’d all got twisted.

He was only halfway through the _Pretty Boy_ fic at that point, so he settled back into the couch with his beer and kept going. The author was having fun, _and was probably a history nerd_ , Tim surmised. In the latter half of the story they’d introduced a French pirate called Benedicte, who had just had a number of Tibbs’ crew captured by the British and, while they were reeling from that low blow, he’d abducted the fair but vicious quartermaster, Jessie Herder, and young Tommy from a busy market, terminally despatching the crew who’d been sent along as security.

Benedicte, thinking to collect the substantial reward on offer for Tommy’s safe return, had not counted on Tommy’s deeply ingrained Stockholm Syndrome and lack of desire to return to court life. His own desire to have Jessie, and for Tommy to wed his beautiful daughter Jeanette, were met with patent abhorrence and threats of Tibbs’ retribution, an insult for which Benedicte had taken Jessie’s left hand, so she could never wear a wedding ring.

TSM4 didn’t burden Tibbs with misunderstanding why his crew were missing; the moment he realised Tommy was gone, the action went into overdrive. Tim found himself on the edge of his seat as the cold-hearted Tibbs searched for his lost … boy. The sea chase was terrific and the final confrontation was as cathartic as you could wish for. As the action devolved into smut, Tim read it just for completion’s sake, pink spots high on his cheeks; One-Shot Tibbs was evidently _very_ pleased to have his _pretty boy_ back.

The rest of the series were shorter sequels – just little timestamps, according to the author – but Tim read them anyway, annoyed with himself for wanting more. TSM4, however, had numbered them weirdly out of order, making it seem like there could be lots more stories.

Tim couldn’t see why they were labelled like that at all. For example, there was #9, which was the second fic; it was set just after main story, and appeared to be mostly Tibbs teaching Tommy how to use a knife, apparently under the impression that if Tommy’d had a knife on him in the market, he wouldn’t have been abducted in the first place. Then there was #18, which was written third, in which Tommy did a number of things which pissed Tibbs off and got away with it because he was _very_ good at begging forgiveness. #5 was a Tommy!POV of Tibbs’ attack and capture, sweet and devastating in its exploration of power dynamics. His favourite was #3, with a longsuffering Tibbs trying to teach Tommy that pirates are liars, with echoes of Jack Sparrow’s _“Pirate!”_ and Tommy being far too trusting. #28 was fairly light-hearted, with Tommy trying to learn how to crew a ship by osmosis instead of asking for instructions. Finally, there was #11, wherein Tibbs decided to give up his ship and piracy, leaving his old life behind – and Tommy not letting him go alone, of course.

It was just confusing, so Tim gave up wondering why. Not that he didn’t enjoy them, though.

He was a little ashamed of himself for getting suckered in to the Tibbs/Tommy relationship, but the way TSM4 wrote them, it was easy to go along for the ride. They were good stories, with compelling characters ... he could see what Abby saw in them; poor little virgin!Tommy and the scurrilous, black-hearted pirate king, Captain One-Shot Tibbs …

OH.

Tim couldn’t believe it’d taken him _this long_ to process it.

 _Tony_.

Tony _said_ those words.

Those fucking _exact_ words.

Tony _knew_ about this story.

Tony knew about _Tibbs/Tommy fic_.

Tony threw it in his face … he threw it in _Gibbs’_ face.

Tim let out a bleat of laughter which sounded vaguely like a sob.

Oh, this couldn’t end well.


End file.
